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Friday, June 04, 2010

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-OTTAWA:

ORGANIZED ANARCHISM AND ANTI-CAPITALISM:

The Ottawa branch of the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause has produced a new booklet on 'Organized Anarchism in the Anti-Capitalist Struggle'. Long overdue in my opinion because of the prevailing illusions amongst anarchists about the effectiveness of protest after protest at various ruling class summits, a tactic that leads to no conclusions in the end. And also the idea of depending upon "spontaneous enthusiasm" as a long term strategy. Here's the notice from the Common Cause website. Now Molly has to admit that the pamphlet leaves much to be desired in the way that it written. To a large extent its audience is restricted to the 0.2% of the population who actually believe in leftist politics after having endured 4 years of social sciences course in certain North American Universities in the last two decades and living in the real world five years afterwards or to others who are familiar with anarchist rhetoric. In other words it is not a pamphlet that one would present to the average person without more than a hint of embarrassment. Yet it is good polemics within this small world. No doubt this is part and parcel of the restricted arguments that consume the anarchist movement in North America, and the authors are arguing "within their gunsights" so to speak. Still, it is a very good pamphlet for presentation to a certain audience, though I have my doubts about its "universal appeal" or even its appeal should anarchism in North America finally break out of its self-imposed "ghetto". I await the anarchist pamphlet that presents the good case for anarchism in simple English for those whose exposure to the idea comes via the mass media.

Members of Common Cause Ottawa have come up with a booklet entitled 'Organized Anarchism in the Anti-Capitalist Struggle: Why we need organization - and principles to follow'

It is based on a presentation given by two CCO members at a conference in March 2010 ('Capitalism and Confrontation')

There are two versions of this booklet in pdf form. Both are on 8.5x11 letter-sized paper, 3 double-sided pages (or 6 single-sided).

One is for straightforward printing ('not folded' version): can be printed single- or double-sided

The other is to create a booklet ('folded' version): needs to be printed double-sided

When printing double-sided, choose the 'double-sided / flip on short edge' option if you have that capability, otherwise print pages 1,3,5 and then figure out how to feed those papers back into the printer so that pages 2,4,6 will print on the reverse side with the proper orientation